New York City Council

NYC Department of Education; NYC Department of Environmental Protection; NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice

Take Care New York 2020 serves as a blueprint that guides New York City’s Health Department in making strides to improve the health of all New Yorkers and to narrow the gap in health equity between residents with more favorable health outcomes and those with adverse health outcomes. Launched in 2015, this plan sets goals to: (1) Promote Healthy Childhoods; (2) Create Healthier Neighborhoods; (3) Support Healthy Living; and (4) Increase Access to Quality Care, with aims to achieve all goals by year 2020. Under the Take Care New York’s 2020 Community Health Improvement Plan, the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene provides detailed recommendations and action items to improve health-related outcomes, and also includes involved partners and how such outcomes will reduce health disparities. For example, the plan recommends public health professionals work with physicians and pharmacists in ‘Health Action Center’ areas (e.g., neighborhoods with low health outcomes) to conduct community health assessments and outreach, as well as increasing outreach at food markets to increase residential enrollment in food assistance programs. The latter is planned to be further supplemented by ‘Health Bucks,’ a program that provides benefits beyond SNAP for low-income residents. TCNY’s first annual update also reports that Shop Healthy NYC and the Urban Health Plan network have partnered with local bodegas and supermarkets to increase access to healthier food options and to educate their residents about healthy eating.